


Some People Weren't Meant to be Caged

by CatWingsAthena



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Episode Tag, Episode: s01e07 Can Opener, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2020-01-01 05:01:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18329117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatWingsAthena/pseuds/CatWingsAthena
Summary: After his brief time in prison, Mac is having trouble. Riley saw this coming. Of course, she's having trouble of her own, but that's not going to stop her from being there for Mac.What started as Riley trying to help Mac ends up with them leaning on each other.Also, constellations.





	Some People Weren't Meant to be Caged

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everybody! So, this fic was inspired by two observations: while there's a lot of fic that addresses the effects of El Noche's nitrogen torture on Mac, there's not a lot that addresses just the effects of being in prison, which seemed to make more of an impact on him, on my viewing of the episode at least. Also, a consequence of this is that Riley's trauma kind of gets glossed over. This is my attempt to remedy those things, at least a little bit. This fic contains discussions of prison and nightmares (in some detail) involving claustrophobic situations. Hope you enjoy!

Mac woke with a start, taking a deep, shaky breath as he reminded himself where he was.

It was his first night back home after his brief stint in prison, and he supposed nightmares were to be expected. He’d certainly had them in the Mexican motel room he’d crashed in with Jack the night before. He’d just been hoping that maybe, just maybe, familiar surroundings would make things easier when he woke up.

Yeah. That was going just great.

He looked around his room, looked at the walls, and suddenly, even though the room had the same dimensions it had always had, it felt too small, constricting, suffocating--

(Mac sincerely hoped he hadn’t added small spaces to heights on his short list of Things.)

Space. He needed space. He needed to get outside, see the stars, feel a breeze, breathe in good old twenty-one-percent-oxygen  _ air _ .

Mac rolled out of bed, threw on some pants, and walked out to the deck.

Only for his heart rate to spike as he saw a shadowy figure sitting in one of his deck chairs.

El Noche had mentioned his friends... did one of them know where he lived? Was this an ambush?

Then, Mac realized two things at roughly the same time.

First, if this was an ambush by one of El Noche’s people, they’d most likely have broken into his house already.

Second, the curly hair, stature, and posture of the person slumped in the chair were very familiar.

“Riley?” Mac called incredulously.

Riley started, nearly falling out of the chair. Then, she looked up, brushing the hair out of her eyes. “Hey, Mac.”

“Um... what are you doing on my deck?”

“Well, I  _ was _ sleeping...”

“Yeah, I could see that,” said Mac. “You scared me for a moment there.”

“Sorry,” said Riley. “I just... After what you said, and what I saw... I thought you might come out here, and I thought you might need to talk when you did.” She’d been looking into the distance, but turned her head to look at Mac. “So here I am.”

“Ri...”

“You said it almost killed you,” said Riley. “Believe me, I get it. So if you need to talk... I know you’re a guy and guys are weird about this stuff, but you can talk to me.”

Mac sighed and sat down in a deck chair next to Riley.

“It goes both ways, you know,” he said. “I’m not about to complain to you. I mean, it doesn’t even compare. Six days to two years... But I got just a little taste of what you went through, and... like I said. I don’t know how you did it.”

“You know exactly how,” said Riley.

“Because you didn’t have any other choice,” said Mac.

Riley nodded.

“But... what I’m trying to say is... If  _ you _ need to talk, I’m here. I’m listening,” said Mac.

There was a long silence that neither one of them made a move to break.

Then:

“I was so scared,” said Riley in a small voice. “Watching you on the monitor and not being able to  _ do _ anything... I just kept thinking, what if something goes wrong and we can’t get to him? If something had happened to you and we hadn’t been able to stop it...”

“Hey,” said Mac. “Nothing  _ did _ happen. I’m here, I’m out, I’m fine.”

“I know,” said Riley. “I just... it took me right back there, back to... a time, and a place, and a... part of myself I wanted to leave behind.”

“I’m sorry,” said Mac.

“And you say you’re fine, but... you’re not, not really,” said Riley. “You came out here for a reason.”

Mac was quiet for a moment, weighing how much to tell her.

“I was dreaming I was back in my cell,” he said, “and... this is gonna sound really stupid, but the walls were literally closing in on me. And I looked around for something I could use to stop them, but there was nothing there. The bed, and the toilet, and everything had disappeared, and it was just me in this empty little room, getting smaller and smaller, and there was... nowhere I could go and... nothing I could do about it.”

Riley nodded. “That one sucks,” she said.

“Yeah,” Mac affirmed. Then, he took a deep breath. “Honestly? It doesn’t matter if I’m fine right now. I  _ will _ be.”

“Yeah, you will,” said Riley. She paused. “Do you still need to talk, or can we talk about something else now?”

“ _ Please _ ,” said Mac.

Riley smiled. “Stars are pretty tonight.”

“What’s your favorite constellation?” asked Mac.

“I like the Big Dipper,” said Riley.

Mac smiled. “Technically, the Big Dipper is part of Ursa Major, but if you account for that... we have the same favorite,” he said. “Any particular reason, for you?”

“Pretty basic,” said Riley. “Easy to find, always there.”

“I like it because two of the stars point the way to Polaris,” said Mac. “The North Star.”

Riley snorted. “Figures you’d like a constellation for a  _ practical _ reason.”

“Not entirely,” said Mac. “I like that it’s always there, too.”

After that, they watched the stars in quiet.

When the first traces of light crept over the horizon, Riley got up. “I’m going home,” she said, stretching the stiffness out of her muscles. “See you at work.”

“See you,” said Mac, getting up from his own chair and heading back inside.

This time, the walls stayed exactly where they were supposed to, and the space he had was space enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again! I hope you liked this! If you did, please let me know below! I hope you have a wonderful day!


End file.
